Twitch loves classic Doctor Who – and companion Ian Chesterton most of all

Ian Chesterton, your time has come again!

Doctor Who on Twitch Presents started Friday, and thousands of viewers all over the world are networking while either discovering the British sci-fi program’s early years for the first time, or enjoying it for first time in a long time.

Mainly they’ve discovered Ian Chesterton (William Russell) from the First Doctor’s original TARDIS crew — a teacher, like fellow unwilling time traveler Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), with whom he follows the Doctor’s precocious granddaughter into a junkyard’s blue police box to find out why she’s so odd and ends up swept away on two years of adventures through time and space.

https://twitter.com/MartinBelam/status/1002682224083390466

Russell, who’s still alive at 93, suddenly has a whole lot of new fans. (He’s also the father of millennial actor Alfred Enoch, who played Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter films and appeared in the first few season of ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder, so chances are he knows it.)

But all good things must come to an end, so of course an instant meme emerged when Ian and Barbara took a stolen time machine home at the end of “The Chase,” a longer serial that saw them evading the evil Daleks in a series of jumps through time.

So has no one done this for #London1965 yet? My first meme as well… So let's make it a niche one eh… 😎 @pipmadeley #DoctorWhoOnTwitch #doctorwho pic.twitter.com/SQ2tRw7rEa

— David Lipscombe (@daveface86) June 2, 2018

Ending their on-screen journey (they were ‘shipped before ‘shipping was a thing, and have appeared in numerous spin-off media), they arrive home in “London 1965,” which leads to a joyous romp through the city even though they’ve been missing from their previous lives there for two years.

https://twitter.com/thejimsmith/status/1002620976092405761

Meanwhile, the crusty old Doctor watches from inside the TARDIS with Vicki on his creepy “Time Television” and finally admits he “shall miss them — silly old fusspots!”

For the National Archive #London1965 #DoctorWhoOnTwitch pic.twitter.com/BI3iNW30eT

— Kieran Highman (@The66Ramblers) June 2, 2018

Normally running Monday through Friday starting at 11 a.m. Pacific through July, there were some technical difficulties early on that brought the stream back Saturday.

Monday’s stream picks up still in the time of the First Doctor, William Hartnell, with 1965’s “The Time Meddler” followed by “The Ark,” “The Gunfighters” and “The War Machines.” Then it’s on to Second Doctor Patrick Troughton’s adventures. They’re skipping over a lot of material, some of it lost, but it’s still turning into a fascinating, cross-generational cultural phenomenon playing out all over the world — an unexpected delight in a year frought with genre fan divisions.

Never thought I'd see the day when 60's Doctor Who would be livestreamed to an eager new generation of fans, Ian Chesterton becoming a meme, and people were clamouring for The Web Planet. This Twitch Doctor Who marathon is the highlight of 2018 #DoctorWhoOnTwitch #London1965

— Dan Opie (@dan_opie) June 1, 2018